What is your Apple Photos workflow when using iPhone, Mac and iCloud sync?

[MitzEclipse]

Hi all
I am trying to determine the best workflow to keep things simple and potentially cableless when it comes to syncing/backing up photos.

My entire ecosystem is Apple so this should be possible, but I can't figure out how to do this while keeping the original quality photos.

I take most of my photos with an iPhone. Right now I do not sync the camera roll via iCloud. I want the original quality photos so I plug the phone into the Macbook and import the photos via Apple Photos.

Is there a way to do this smarter via iCloud automatically? My Apple Photos would be the golden source where all my photos are located, backed up to a time capsule.

My Apple Photos library size currently is 700gb but growing - I could imagine this to exceed 2TB, current size of the largest iCloud option.

Any suggestions appreciated

 

[MitzEclipse]

Many thanks @SurroundUs this is very helpful. Where do I do this? from within Apple Photos? I don't see this option?

when selecting your MacBook as the "originals vault" by enabling "download originals" on that computer.

 

[SurroundUs]

Happy to help.

You can find the "download originals" option in the Apple Photos app under Photos -> Preferences -> iCloud -> iCloud Photos -> Download Originals to this Mac. Be sure to enable this on the computer that you would like original photos downloaded to and that you have plenty of space on your hard drive for the photos.

 

[MitzEclipse]

Thank you! I'll give this a try and reach out if I have any further questions

How do I ensure the originals are uploaded to iCloud in full-size? Is there a corresponding setting on the iPhone?

Happy to help.

You can find the "download originals" option in the Apple Photos app under Photos -> Preferences -> iCloud -> iCloud Photos -> Download Originals to this Mac. Be sure to enable this on the computer that you would like original photos downloaded to and that you have plenty of space on your hard drive for the photos.

 

[skyhawkmatthew]

iCloud Photo Library always uploads the original full-quality file from your device to the cloud. In order to save space when "optimise storage" is turned on on a device, originals may not always be downloaded automatically, and instead a preview shown to you, but if you zoom in or enter editing mode, the original file is downloaded for you to work with. You don't need to explicitly do anything; the system sorts everything out for you.

As long as you have "download originals" selected on your Mac as SurroundUs has shown you, any photo you take on your iPhone will appear on your Mac in full quality shortly afterwards once your iPhone has an opportunity to upload it to iCloud (usually it is within seconds but is obviously dependent on your internet connection, whether you have allowed the phone to use cellular data for sync or whether it might need to wait for wi-fi, and also the phone may temporarily inhibit uploads to save battery). The sync status is shown at the bottom of your photo library on the device (where it shows the total photo/video count) and gives you an opportunity to override any inhibit for battery etc there as well.

 

[MitzEclipse]

Thank you, very helpful!

Good to know full-quality files are always uploaded to iCloud. Also good to know the "download originals" setting for my Mac.

First question: Is there a setting to auto-delete once the photo is moved to the Mac? I am trying to eliminate the step I need to do to delete the photos on iCloud to free up the space (I only have the 5gb version)

Second question: This also works for videos, right? When I tried doing this a while back videos did not sync so I wonder if this has now changed as I want everything taken on the phone to move to the Mac in full quality via iCloud.

Thanks!

 

[skyhawkmatthew]

iCloud photo Library does indeed work for videos.

The way iCloud is designed, all of the content is stored in the cloud and then made available on all your devices, either on demand or pushing everything down depending on whether “download originals” is set. As such, you need to have sufficient space in iCloud to hold the whole library.

If you really don’t want to pay for iCloud storage, you’ll need to use an app like PowerPhotos to transfer your images from the iCloud synced library to a second non-iCloud library that is solely on your Mac and then remove them from the synced library. This is obviously a laborious process, and also means your iPhone loses access to these images. I would recommend just paying for iCloud. If you need to minimise the expenditure, perhaps move some older images into a different library to reduce the size of the synced library.

 

[MitzEclipse]

Thank you - I'm trying to better understand this. I am trying to figure out if there is anyway to only have a "minimized version" of the photos on iCloud for iPhone retrieval - similar to how Google Photos does this?

Trying to avoid paying the 2TB fee if possible and really only need minimized photos from phone rather than full versions.

Thanks for the tip on PowerPhotos - seems too complex for what its worth however and I don't want to lose access to the photos on the phone

 

[skyhawkmatthew]

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s easily possible to achieve what you want without significant manual intervention as I described before. The simplest solution is to just pay for the iCloud storage and then you just don’t have to think about it at all.

 

[HDFan]

I am trying to figure out if there is anyway to only have a "minimized version" of the photos on iCloud for iPhone retrieval - similar to how Google Photos does this?

Trying to avoid paying the 2TB fee if possible and really only need minimized photos from phone rather than full versions.

Having "minimized version" on iCloud and having only the full sized version on your Mac would defeat its purpose.

1. Any Apple device can download the original file from iCloud so that it can be edited. Wouldn't be able to do that if the original were only kept on your Mac.

2. If your are traveling and uploading the originals to iCloud then you are protected if anything happens to your camera.

3. The ~$120 a year (US) price for 2 TB of storage is a bit steep, but it provides the maximum protection for your photos assuming you care about them. It is the same price as Dropbox which only offers storage, not the all of the options the iCloud offers.

 

[MitzEclipse]

Fair points @skyhawkmatthew and @HDFan - I am going to eventually have to bite this bullet as it will stop me from having to deal with this manual intervention that is quite painful. Thanks again for the input.

I take a lot of duplicate (or close to duplicate) photos with the kids so I get the best shot. Is there some shortcut that will automatically choose / recommend the best photo and then auto-delete the not good photos from the photostream and / or library so I don't have to deal with the bulk?

 

[MitzEclipse]

Wondering if it's possible to auto-choose and delete the (near) duplicate photos?

Also wondering how easy it is to delete photos - because usually it goes into the recently deleted - hope I don't have to deal with too many steps here, just don't want to have to carry the bulk

 

[HDFan]

Wondering if it's possible to auto-choose and delete the (near) duplicate photos?

That's a can of worms. What you might think is important may not be what any AI program might chose. Particularly with people shots you might be interested in one particular person where an AI program might chose another when they were in perfect focus. Or you might be interested in the landscape or some something in the distance and the AI chooses something in the foreground.

There are also issues with the white balance, saturation, color, highlights, sky, etc. which all could be items of personal preference.

Certainly sympathize with you as I have over 200K of photos and definitely struggle to get get through all of them. The quickest way I have found is to go through them quickly in lightroom and rate the ones which I like which is simple in lightroom as you just hit the number keys to rate from 1-5.

 

[MitzEclipse]

That's a can of worms. What you might think is important may not be what any AI program might chose. Particularly with people shots you might be interested in one particular person where an AI program might chose another when they were in perfect focus. Or you might be interested in the landscape or some something in the distance and the AI chooses something in the foreground.

There are also issues with the white balance, saturation, color, highlights, sky, etc. which all could be items of personal preference.

Certainly sympathize with you as I have over 200K of photos and definitely struggle to get get through all of them. The quickest way I have found is to go through them quickly in lightroom and rate the ones which I like which is simple in lightroom as you just hit the number keys to rate from 1-5.

Thank you for the response. I don't use Lightroom and really looking for a very simple Apple-only solution so I can take advantage of iCloud sync. Understand the complexities here but would be great for the app to propose some "good ones" to avoid the manual triage.